


Ouroboros

by sharkbuddie



Series: The Life and Death of the Human Race [2]
Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Death, Disturbing Themes, F/F, F/M, Fan Characters, Gore, Government Conspiracy, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Character of Color, LGBTQ Themes, Long, M/M, Multi, Outer Space, Parasites, Psychological Horror, Religion, Scary, Survival Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:09:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27572071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharkbuddie/pseuds/sharkbuddie
Summary: It goeth before the fall.
Relationships: Cyan & Lime (Among Us), Pink/Purple (Among Us)
Series: The Life and Death of the Human Race [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2015218
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Ouroboros

**Author's Note:**

> A SEQUEL! I hope this lives up to the hype of the first one!!! I'm so happy to have such a positive response to my first story. Really - this is all that is helping me cope these days with school being hard, COVID ruining my life, and the ever-present existential dread that comes with being a newly-twenty-one-year old brings. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this one as much as the first!

It was hot on the ship. Of course it was; she was pressed up against an overheating reactor wobbling on its last feeble legs. Her insulated suit was helping the machine boil her alive. Her helmet was who knows where, cracked and bloody, probably lost along with her eye. The blood gushing down her face was hot. It mixed into the ugliest, saltiest fluid she had ever encountered as it and the sweat pouring down her face made their way down into the neck of her suit. Doctor Emmy was barely able to see what she was doing as she tried ripping out wires and twisting them together, all the while something that used to be her crew mates banged their misshapen forms against the weakening door behind her. Her red hair was matted with blood. Some of it clung to her forehead in ugly, greasy tendrils. The gaping hole where her eye had once been hurt like nothing she had ever felt before. If Hell was real - and she was inclined, now, to believe that it might be - this was it. 

Emmy yelped as the metal of the door behind her thudded as it began to give way under the massive weight being thrust against it. She could see goopy, flesh-colored mush starting to seep into the room. She recognized one of the fingers in the puddle creeping inside as Hugh's; his class ring was affixed to it, bright gold with fine black detailing and a big sapphire in the middle. She tugged hard on a blue wire so she could attach it to the other end, but it snapped. 

Warning alarms scream at her. The reactor is seconds from a meltdown. The heat coming off it is blistering; literally. She can feel her skin cracking a peeling as the metal bends to the will of the collapsing ingredients inside it. Just as she sends one last prayer to her goddess, she is vaporized, along with her former crew and the ship. 

And then she wakes up. 

Emmy doesn't jolt awake from these dreams anymore. She just wakes up, willed out of sleep by her brain not wanting to feel her body be torn apart atom by atom or have her head removed by a barbed tentacle. The windows were always open in her room. The air coming in was cool and wet, making everything just a little damp. Rain pattered quietly on the metal of the trailer. Margo was happily asleep behind her with her fluffy curls splayed across her pillow, and she Emmy finds herself staring at her sleeping form with fondness. Margo is too high-strung to be this peaceful in the waking world, and so Emmy doesn't bother waking her. Instead, she presses a tender kiss to her exposed shoulder before slipping out of the covers and into her slippers. Lucky thought it would be funny to get her a pair of pink rabbit slippers. She supposes it is a little funny, though equally childish. It's very him. She grabbed her gray pullover and slipped it over her head. She checked to make sure Margo was indeed still asleep before padding silently to her kitchen. The clock on the stove told her it was about three AM planet time. That meant about five AM in Earth hours, since the sun shined here much longer than on Earth. The math was too confusing for her to worry about it too much. She went for her pink kitty-shaped mug in the cabinet above the stove, which she quickly began filling with hot water from her coffee maker. Emmy had no plans for the day. She could make herself something hot, then slip back into bed until whatever time her body decided. Margo would be up in an hour or two to get started on work, and she suspected Lucky and Oakley would be doing about the same. 

Emmy thought about them as she gabbed a box of English Breakfast out of the cabinet, alongside a glass jar of local honey. It felt like the rest of the crew was doing much better than she was. Even the Polus crew was thriving on this planet. They all needed therapy, and most regularly attended. But Emmy felt she lagged behind in the path to recovery. Hell, she was lagging behind in symptom management too. She couldn't recall the last time she felt okay enough to get any real work done. So much for humanity's savior, or whatever it was the United Interspace Bureau called her these days. What did it matter? She only had status with them because people died, and she happened to be the lucky bitch who thought to stop someone's heart to free them from the parasite. They called them 'spongers' or 'sponge worms' these days. Yes - she had the credit for naming them. All of the attention she got for her discoveries was deeply unwanted. When she was young and dreamed of being a famous scientist, this was not what she had in mind. Her notoriety was built upon the festering corpses of her fellow man. She was disgusted by it, and was disgusted even more so by the way the UIB acted like her 'achievements' were anything beyond happy accidents. 

After stirring in a spoonful of honey and a splash of milk, Emmy sat down at the small kitchen table to sip her tea. The reddish prickles of the sun rising were beginning to tease the edge of the forest outside, making the rain shine like falling pebbles of glass. From the window she could see a local cervidae eating a patch of wet grass. The animals on this planet were not too unlike those Emmy had seen in books and movies about Earth. This particular one was shaped like an Earth deer, though far larger, with two heads, and with greenish fur spotted with patches of brown. It had two eyes poised on either side of its head as most prey animals did, but it also had an extra set of smaller eyes square in the middle of the forehead. This one was male, she knew, because of the impressive rack of antlers on its head. They had pinkish crystals growing on them. A lot of animals here had some sort of biological interaction with the naturally occurring crystals. She wanted to study them alongside the other scientists, but she couldn't find it in herself to pick up a damned microscope after what happened. She was good and traumatized, that was for sure. 

She watched as a set of bright headlights sent the 'deer' running into the thicket, leaving behind six cloven footprints with each bound. A military jeep was splashing down the road with no care for the serenity of the early morning. She figured it would be coming for her, so she tied her hair back so she could pretend to look professional. 

Emmy grabbed the door before the intruders could knock. Sure enough, two UIB officers in ugly gray uniforms were at her door. Of course they sent a woman officer with a male escort. They knew she would listen if a woman talked to her. This woman, in particular, was Officer Kilani. She was tall and lean, and Emmy often compared her to what she imagined a living skeleton would look like. She was all harsh angles and taught brown skin. Her silky black hair was always in the neatest, tightest bun Emmy had ever seen. Her pointy nose held up a pair of round glasses in front of two cold green eyes. Emmy was not happy to see her. 

"Good morning," Kilani said. She had an accent Emmy couldn't place. Margo said it was East Indian. Emmy didn't know the difference, and frankly, she didn't care. "I hope you are well today."

"Peachy," Emmy replied flatly. The business-perfect smile on Kilani's face made her grumpy. "Can I help you with something?"

"Might we come in? We have much to discuss and Alex doesn't like the rain." 

Emmy eyed her escort. Alex was shorter than Kilani and baby-faced. His hair was buzzed. He was overall unremarkable.

"Nice to meet you, Alex." 

"Nice to meet you, Doctor Emmy," he said respectfully. His voice cracked, and Emmy couldn't help but smile inwardly. She knew the voice of someone freshly on T. She felt happy for him, even though he was assisting Kilani in harassing her. Emmy held the door open for them and stepped aside, gesturing for them to go sit at the table. 

"You want coffee or something?" Emmy offered with no actual intentions of doing that. She shut and locked the door. 

"Can I get some water, actually?" Alex said. Emmy happily poured him a glass before sitting across from Kilani, taking a fat gulp of her tea as the woman began pulling out paperwork and a tablet. Emmy watched her with no interest whatsoever. Whatever this was, she wasn't interested. She liked her boring, depressed life on the green planet Iona. Nothing else fucking mattered anymore. 

"So," Kilani began after meticulously setting up a number of nondescript government...whatevers. Emmy didn't care. "On behalf of the UIB I would first like to congratulate you on your recent contributions to the fight against the spongers, particularly your suggestion that we test with sound devices. We would like to offer you the title of Chief of Parasitic Control, as well as a platinum medal for Outstanding Contributions to Humanity." 

She slid a small, platinum medal across the table. It had an etching of Prometheus on it, holding the sacred flame up high. The fabric affixing the medal to the pin on the back was blue and silver. Emmy stuffed it into the pocket of her pajama pants with a roll of her eyes before sipping her tea again. 

"We would also like to offer you a position on a special committee for handling this outbreak. Only our top officers and staff are invited; you would be directly responsible for making decisions, planning, and sharing information. Your opinion is highly valued, as you know, and we think you'd be an asset." 

"Pass," Emmy said without looking up from her nails. The bubblegum pink polish was beginning to chip. She had to stop chewing on them. "What else do you want?"

Kilani gave an incredulous chuckle, "You can't actually pass this one up. We are aware of your...previous choices to decline being put on such a committee, but this time it is mandatory."

That gave her pause. Emmy narrowed her eyes at the woman. "Mandatory my ass. I'm not even an acting officer anymore! I'm missing a goddamn eye for god's sake. What exactly are you expecting from me, exactly?"

"Well, this trailer, land, and living permit were given to you by the UIB. You are in UIB territory. And, technically, your contract with UIB is not up until you are thirty-five, or become permanently disabled." 

"Are you stupid? I am missing an _eye!_ "

"And yet," Kilani says with a horrifically corporate smile, "You seem to be getting on just fine. Besides - do you not feel beholden to your race? This is not all about you, you know. The fate of mankind - “

“Kilani,” Emmy grumbles. She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Don’t use that old, boring line on me. I fucking know humanity is relying on my input or whatever. I’m so tired of that excuse. Come up with something original to guilt me into dragging myself to whatever outer space hellhole you want me on.”

Kilani pursed her lips. God - Emmy was so angry. She abandoned her tea on the table as she steamed and watched the officer in front of her plot. 

“Lucky will be invited too,” Alex chimes in. Both Emmy and Kilani look at him. He shrugs, and sips his water. “I don’t know if that makes you want to come or not, but he will be.”

Emmy laughed out loud. “Lucky? Go back into space? You’re out of your fucking mind. He had a sponger in his head you know. He’s the entire basis of my ‘discoveries.’ God you lot are pathetic.” 

Emmy could hear Margo beginning to stir in the other room. She suddenly felt even more of an urgency to get these two out of her home. She rubbed her face exhaustedly. These people didn’t know how to leave her alone. She just wanted to rot here in peace. She deserved that much, at least. Fuck. 

“So I don’t have a choice, you’re gonna drag Lucky into this, and...what? Is there some carrot on this shitty fucking stick you’ve put out in front of me?” 

Kilani smiles. “You’ll be the potential savior of the human race. Our fight against the spongers is far from over, and as you know they are evolving to be sneakier and deadlier every day. We cannot hope to win this fight without your help, Doctor Emmy.” 

Of course. 

It was times like now that she wished Hugh had lived, and not her. She wasn’t qualified to lead, and she hated this ugly spotlight the UIB had forced upon her. 

She sighed. 

“Yeah. Sure. Fine. Whatever. Send the summons to my tablet and I’ll be ready. Just...get the fuck out of my house so I can enjoy the rest of the morning with my girlfriend uninterrupted.”


End file.
